OpenQM™, more commonly abbreviated to QM, is the only MultiValue database available both as a fully supported commercial product and in open source form under the General Public License. The name OpenQM is a generic term used to describe both the open source and the commercial ‘closed source’ versions of the QM database.
QM is a combined development and runtime environment that allows construction of application software in a fraction of the time taken with some other widely used but significantly more expensive development toolsets.
QM has a managed application environment in which user programs run, resulting in high reliability and ease of maintenance. Compiled applications are portable across all platforms (Windows, Linux, AIX, PDA, etc.) unless operating specific features are incorporated into the application by the developer.
The environment is built around an integrated database package that uses the power and simplicity of the MultiValue data model but can also support fully normalized relational data structures. The Virtual File System can be used to provide access to data in other data stores.
Proponents of the well-known (and often expensive) relational database products sometimes dismiss MultiValue databases as being an insignificant or antiquated technology that has no relevance in today’s business world. This is simply not true. Many of the world’s largest and most successful companies use MultiValue technology.
The relational and MultiValue data models were created at about the same time. There is a growing recognition that the relational model has significant flaws and this has given rise to the NoSQL movement and a range of alternative new database technologies striving to capture users for whom the modern world of big data cannot be implemented effectively in the relational model. MultiValue is well established as a proven technology that can handle big data and the complexity of today’s applications.